With 294 laps left to run in 2011, Vettel has a strong chance of beating the record for most laps led:

Year

Driver

Laps led

Total laps

% led

1992

Nigel Mansell

694

1036

66.99

2004

Michael Schumacher

683

1122

60.87

1994

Michael Schumacher

646

1046

61.76

2011

Sebastian Vettel

582

839/1133

69.37

The highest proportion of laps led in a season is 71.47% by Jim Clark in 1963. To beat that Vettel must lead 228 of the remaining laps this year.

Vettel chalked up his 19th career win putting him alone in 13th on the list of all-time winners. Four more wins this year will put him in the top ten all-time race winners in F1.

The 26th pole position of his career puts him level with Mika Hakkinen in seventh among the drivers who have set the most pole positions.

It was the 15th consecutive pole position for Red Bull. The record for most consecutive pole positions stands at 24, set by Williams between the 1992 French and 1993 Japanese Grands Prix.

Button blocks Vettel’s perfect result

Jenson Button, McLaren, Singapore, 2011

Vettel led every lap of the race, something he has achieved twice before in his career, at Suzuka in 2009 and Valencia last year.

If Vettel had set fastest lap he would have achieved his first ever perfect result of pole position, fastest lap, victory and leading every lap.

But he was beaten to it by Jenson Button, who set the fifth fastest lap of his career. That puts him level with Giuseppe Farina, Carlos Pace, Jody Scheckter, Didier Pironi, John Watson and Michele Alboreto. Vettel has only set fastest lap once during a race this year.

Button finished on the podium for the eighth time this year, giving him twice as many top-three finishes as his team mate.

He also held second place for every lap of the race. This meant the top two positions were unchanged throughout the Grand Prix, as they were last year when Fernando Alonso finished first ahead of Vettel.

Red Bull on verge of title

Vettel gave Red Bull their 24th win, putting them alone in eighth on the list of teams with most wins. They also had their 60th podium finish.

Red Bull are within reach of the constructors’ championship and can win it in Suzuka.

The Singapore Grand Prix has been won by four different teams in as many years: Renault in 2008, McLaren in 2009, Ferrari in 2010 and Red Bull this year.

Alonso failed to finish on the podium at Singapore for the first time.

Fifth race penalty of 2011 for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton collected his fifth race penalty of 2011, giving him more than any other driver. The other top offenders are Sergio Perez (four), Jenson Button, Pastor Maldonado, Kamui Kobayashi and Paul di Resta (two).

Di Resta achieved the best result of his career so far with sixth. It was Force India’s first double points finish since the Australian Grand Prix.

I hope they build a good car because Alonso deserves another shot in a decent car. Plus, Schumacher seems capable of winning races in a good car and it would be interesting to see McLaren boys in the mix from day one.

Because in his hey days there was refueling. so someone drove 2nd or 3rd fastest car could snatch pole with extremely low fuel if Schumacher decided to go heavy fuel. Remember 2008&2009, Alonso who drove bad car but could manage some poles with low fuel.

Also in the 1990’s, and even in the 00’s there were other strong qualifying cars that could beat and challenge him in qualifying (such as the Williams, Mclarens and the Renaults later on) while he was stronger in the race.

This year the Red Bull in Vettel’s hands is just untouchable in quali trim. No one apart from Webber has really looked like getting pole otherwise.

For example Schumacher won 9 races in 1995 but was only on pole 4 times, Hill and Coulthard were quicker over a single lap. In 98 he was on pole twice but won 6 races, he was always stronger on race days and people like Mika Hakkinen were very quick over one lap in the late 90’s.

Back to Vettel, I think he’ll break the poles in a season record but not the races record, although if he continues to perform like this weekend he may well just do it.

Yeah, JPM got 7 of them, including 5 poles in a row, and yet scored no victories.

That 2002 Wiliiams was something special over one lap, but couldn’t covert in the race. It’s a shame, I would have loved just one season where Montoya had a car equal to Schumacher and they could have duked it out.

Button only has a seventeen-point lead. There’s a maximum of hundred and twenty-five points left on offer this season. Hamilton can turn it around, though based on recent form, Button is the fast horse.

I don’t think it’s a case of “there’s 125 to play for, he’s 17 behind.” I think a more in-context look at it is that Hamilton now has to outscore Jenson by 3.4 points in all the remaining races, on average.

All it takes is one mistake (unlikely), one mechanical failure (possible), one Hamilton-not-messing-up (no idea anymore!) or one badly times safety car (always possible) and they could well be equal after one race, let alone 5.

Whilst it’s Hamilton’s fifth race penalty this year, he’s been involved in countless other incidents that were solely his fault. Crashing into Webber and Button in Canada, Swiping across into Kobayashi in Belgium, the incident with Massa in quali yesterday…

It really demonstrates that something needs to be done. In football, if you get 5 yellow cards over the season, you get a one match ban.

Something similar needs to be introduced in F1, if only to demonstrate that continual bad driving is unacceptable at the highest level of Motorsport.

Or Jacques Villeneuve who, like Lewis, won WDC in his second year before making a very average career. However, I think Lewis is better than Villeneuve and Schumacher’s hiatus (5 years) before starting his dominance era in Ferrari should be repeated for either Lewis or Alonso… (they hope)

I’ve actually been thinking the same thing lately. There are a lot of parralels. Won a bunch of races in his rookie season, won the championship in his second, has steadily gotten worse at racing… I agree though, Hamilton definitely seems to have more natural ability than JV, and if he can mature a little, and focus his mind, he’ll definitely be more successful in the long run than was JV.

To me the most interesting stat is that Vettel has only had one fastest lap this season, I think it shows the level of maturity that he has driven with this year, pulling out a gap when he needs to and carefully monitoring it. It has let him comfortably dictate strategy in a lot of races and he hasn’t taken unnecessary risks by always trying to push the limits. Compared to earlier seasons, Vettel’s performance really has been level-headed and world class.

Absolutely, he’s in a position where he doesn’t have to push as hard, and the fact that he isn’t is what shows me that he has his head firmly on his shoulders and driving with a maturity that was lacking in previous seasons.

Looking at race laptimes be aware that Vettel has the best score throughout the season.

He has only 1 FLAP this season but many times the 2nd or 3rd fastest lap. Main reasons are that Vettel at end of race often conserves car&engine and also other drivers making late pitstop (strategy or damaged wings) and on fresh rubber and empty car set a quick lap.

Giving 24 points for FLAP, 23 points for 2nd FLAP etc so far this season Vettel collected 300 points, Webber is 2nd with 294 points and Button is 3rd with 281 points.

I was at Interlagos last year and it was impressive how much love Lewis get from Brazilian fans. Massa â€śplayingâ€ť driver #2 role at Ferrari has gained him tons of criticism in Brazil, his haters in Brazil and Lewis Brazilian fans will add extra drama to their rivalry.

I think Vettel is a very good driver but not yet great, he just has a great car which Mark is backing up by being as far up the table as he is.
Put the top six drives all in a red bull and i do not think Seb would win many races if any at all
Dave

Look at the constructors points they are running away with it it may be 127 points behind but but he is right up there all the time his problems are thet ead bull use him as the testing pad and the this is what we have left over you have to use it, marks red bul has failed a lot more than sebs look at the complete picture not the jaded seb fans rose specs

Easy Seb has shown his hand, his overtaking it not great one good pass on Alonso his wet racing is not great slipped off under pressure from Button as i said he is a very very good driver but great ????

Because of what Vettel’s shown this year I believe him and Alonso are the most complete drivers in the field. Based on that I made an assumption he would win at least 5 races if all 6 drivers from the top 3 teams would be in Red Bull.

I believe that’s what would happen, but it’s not 100% sure. That’s why I said I’m pretty sure.

I don’t think this is fair assessment at this point. I was saying pretty much the same last year, but not after he won his championship. He is genuinely quick. He’s outclassing Webber and is controlling every race like a true master. He’s definitely among the top 3 best drivers of the grid.

I think this has to be one of the most overused criticisms of Vettel. And it’s not backed up in any way by actual experience.

None of the top 6 (or top 3 really) drivers have had anywhere near the level of dominance Vettel has had, when they were in the most dominant car in the field (e.g., Button, Alonso, Hamilton). The only who has is/was Schumacher.

If you look at this year, Vettel is averaging a grid position of less than 1.3 and a race finish of 1.5.

If you take 2007 and COMBINE the results for Alonso and Hamilton (the McLaren being the dominant car that year), they had less wins and less pole positions then Vettel already has this year. (Combined they had 8 wins and 8 pole positions). While a McLaren driver was on the podium every race of the year, Vettel already has more podiums himself – 13 – than either Alonso or Hamilton did in 17 races, with each on the podium 12 times.

So in the best car (McLaren) on the grid, combining the results of the two drivers many say are a class above Vettel (Alonso and Hamilton), they still can’t equal what Vettel has done.

At this point, I’d say if you put any other driver in the Redbull they more than likely wouldn’t do as well as Vettel. And if they did, it certainly wouldn’t be by much. The only driver on the grid that has been more dominant in a dominant car is Schumacher.

Are you sure? Don’t forget to apply the SAME point system for both the record and Sebs count. Example: if Seb had 2 times a second place under the current point system, his percentage would be 36/50, so 72%, but under the point system of 2009, it would be 16/20, or 80%. Big difference, so be carefull with by looking into those statistics.

OK.
if Schumacher used todays system in 2002, he would have got 380/425 points at about 89%.
Seb would need to get 425 points (another 116) to beat that percentage, so a tough task as a single 3rd place would ruin it.

1 fastest lap for Vettel only. This strongly reminds me of Ayrton Senna who had very few fastest laps in his career. Not because he couldn’t have them, but because his style was to romp into the distance and then maintain the gap and letting others so try and catch him. Precisely what Vettel does this season. Senna is Hamilton’s hero but at the moment it’s Vettel who is Senna-esque

Coming from a A.Senna and Alonso fan, i have to admit Vettel is doing incredible things he is matching every single record across the stats of many greats. He has become a team leader just as well as MSC and Alonso, controls his race strategy like Prost, pulls qualifying laps and outpacing his teamate in some by unexplainable margins justl like Senna. And he is doing all this in perhaps one of the most competitive field of drivers in F1 history with 5 world champions and two (web & massa)that came really close to doing it. Hats off to Seb

Yes, heâ€™s doing all that against 4 WDC, but we should bear in mind that, like that adage Briatore loves, â€śyou donâ€™t win an F1 race in a Fiat Pandaâ€ť.

It would be better for Seb driving vs. closer competition throughout the season and win it. Seb seems to have, always, a bit of speed in his pocket to deliver whenever someone threatens his lead, thatâ€™s wise and noteworthy too.

This is a telling fact.
The mid field competitors sucks majorly (when compared to the front running teams). With reliability being as high as it is… we need an extended period of stable rules to bring the cars closer together.